As I explained on the page for "Keep the Faith," in the late 1980s shared-world anthologies were trendy, and Marty Greenberg suggested to his friend Isaac Asimov that he should organize his own shared-world series. Dr. Asimov gave it a shot, creating "Isaac's Universe," a far-future setting where other writers could set stories.

I was invited back for the third volume, as well, but didn't have any new inspiration deriving from the shared setting. I did, however, have a science fiction story idea I'd been mulling over for awhile. I think it was more inspired by Poul Anderson's work than by Asimov's, but still, it fit neatly and plausibly into Isaac's Universe, and here was a chance to write it.

So I did, and that's "One Man's Meat," which appeared in Unnatural Diplomacy. I honestly don't remember whether the "diplomacy" theme was in the original invitation or not, but it certainly fit -- my story very definitely involves unnatural diplomacy.

It seems to have gone over pretty well, but the series had largely run its course, and there was no fourth anthology, so I only had the two stories in this universe, and there's no connection between them beyond the shared-world setting. That, and I included them both in my collection Celestial Debris. (See link to the right.)